Watkins Featured in Columbus (Ga) Ledger-Enquirer

Jul 22, 2008

Former Shaw soccer player working on
game

By Troy Johnson, Columbus Ledger-Enquirer

Even though he's surrounded on the field by other college soccer
players, Clay Watkins quickly developed the sense that he had
graduated to another level when he signed on this summer to play
for the Panama City Pirates of the Premier Development League.

The amateur league serves as a proving ground for players
23-and-under and a recruiting pool for the United Soccer Leagues,
which features professional teams in the U.S., Canada and the
Caribbean. A few minutes into his first practice, Watkins, a former
All-Bi-City player at Shaw High School, realized that he wasn't
playing in a glorified summer recreational league.

"The style of play is probably 10 times faster than it is in
college," said Watkins, a midfielder. "Everything from doing the
little things to doing the difficult things is a lot easier for
these players. Passing the ball around is just easy for them. They
don't struggle to trap a ball or knock a ball from one side of the
field to the other."

Watkins, who can trace his soccer beginnings back to Bibb Field
as an under-6 player, knows where the game could take him if he
continues to sharpen his skills. One of the players he encountered
on the fields at the Woodruff Soccer Complex happened to be
Marshall Leonard, who parlayed his talents into a career with the
New England Revolution of Major League Soccer.

"I've played with him a few times," said Watkins, who will begin
his senior season at Georgia Southwestern State in Americus in
August. "It's never been farfetched to look at him on TV and say,
'Why can't I be there?' "

Watkins, who earned All-America and All-Region honors at Darton
College in Albany before transferring to Georgia Southwestern
State, has found an abundance of inspiration while playing for the
Pirates this summer. One of his former teammates at Georgia
Southwestern is busy carving out a pro career in Sweden's first
division.

In the PDL, which sells itself as a place for amateur players to
compete in a "professionalized setting while maintaining their
collegiate eligibility," there's the possibility of playing in
front of scouts from the USL or abroad. The league features 67
teams spread across four conferences.

The Pirates' 16-game regular season comes to a close Sunday, but
Watkins said the experience has been worthwhile.

Even though the Pirates have played their home games at a local
high school, Watkins said the interest in the team has been
surprising. He said the typical home crowds of 400 dwarf what he
saw during his last college season.

The most enjoyable component for Watkins, however, has been the
regular opportunity to challenge himself against players from major
college soccer factories like Duke, Virginia and Clemson. It's a
rare experience for an athlete from a small college, akin to a
Division II basketball player going up against counterparts from
Kansas and UCLA.

"Everybody you play against is a top-notch player still in
college," said Watkins, a 5-foot-8, 150-pounder. "Some of the guys
that are here could easily go play in the MLS right now and they're
19 or 20 years old."

While Watkins will return to Georgia Southwestern to finish out
his college career and a degree in business management, he
understands the value of the visibility offered by the PDL. GSW, a
Division II program, went 0-18 last season. Professional scouts
tend to flock to programs in the Atlantic Coast Conference or
Pac-10.

"If you have Duke or UNC written on your back, you could have
played 25 minutes there (in your career) and you have yourself a
good ticket," Watkins said. "You have your shot here. It's better
than sitting at home and not doing anything all summer. I think
you'll get a better look here than you would just coming out of
college. Just getting a shot is the hard part.